Squirrels and Going Squirrely!

So as much as I hate to say this I wish my kids would be cookie cutter kids some days. I wish on occasion that they would be little office workers who follow their instructions to the T. But...reality sets in my son ,7, who has issues with writing anything..is flopping on the desk and moaning. No he isn't sick, he is moaning because I am asking him to.. GASP.. copy five words off the board onto a mini book. It is exasperating to say the least to have him whining, breaking one of are school rules, and procrastinating for no reason other then in my mind sheer laziness. This was following hot on the heels of DD ,5, who threw a holy fit over having to actually use scissors to cut out a rectangle of paper. "I CAN'T DO IT!" she yells as her mantra every time she becomes frustrated. Sometimes it seems like they wish I would do their work for them. I have to explain I have already gone to school and done all of the work. And in fact I am still doing the work to bring it before them. It takes the patience of a saint some days to make it through without throwing a fit of my own. Yes I dare say this past week I went a little squirrely waiting for work to be completed and attitudes to adjust.
That being said. They absorbed..somehow the information that they were taught. Their squirrel lapbooks were completed beautifully and french lessons continued. I think when I am able, my good computer died, I will post a page for showing off projects whether they are art or lapbooks.
All that aside last weekend we had a lovely family outing with our canoe to a scenic and very private rock island with tall pine trees. We canoed across the small inlet to a beach bordered by forest and got to experience first hand the tutting of a red squirrel who didn't appreciate our company so close to it's home. The dog had come with us. She isn't much for getting wet and it showed as she waited for DH to gingerly lift her out of the canoe and onto shore. Getting back into the canoe she apparently thought she would be left behind. So she made a fantastic yet very ungraceful bound back into the canoe.
We saw an interesting underwater grotto hole likely for the otters we had observed swimming there the previous year. Or perhaps it belonged to the beavers who also were near by.
We fished and caught nothing other then sunburned faces. DS was so discouraged since he could see the Pumpkinseeds right there in the water. "Ah well next time," I told him.
September is going to be a whirlwind as I have a craft show in early October to prepare for. And the kids swimming starts. I also managed to get a hold of the Girl Guides for my DD who is very excited to get going. My DH and myself are also going to be building a new front deck for the house before the ground freezes. We will be using some of the wonderful boards he earned for time spent at a friends sawmill. The idea was to start the digging of posts this long labor day weekend. But rain has been coming down now most of the week making the ground very wet. We may have to dig it anyway as time is short here in the North and winter freeze will come by the end of October. The kids are eager to help with the digging as they love getting in the muck.
I was really disappointed with the dying of my computer as I wasn't able to pull all this past years pictures off of it before it gave up the ghost. Happily I did manage to save my favorites. So now I can keep adding to this blog the links for the unit studies when I have more free time.